1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a torque socket, especially to a non-return ratchet type torque socket capable of having one end being sleeved with a manual, pneumatic or electric rotation tool and the other end being sleeved with a drive head.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a screwdriver is composed of a handle having a pre-determined length and a drive rod having a drive head, and generally the drive head can be formed in a flat or cross shape for mating with the flat or cross recessed slot formed on top of a screw, thereby locking or loosening a screw being able to be performed. Because the drive head of the mentioned screwdriver has fixed shape and dimension, a drive head having different shape and dimension cannot be used for replacement. In view of the disclosed shortage, skilled people in the art have developed a manual tool in which the drive head being able to be changed, e.g. a wrench; after the wrench is sleeved with a socket, an insertion slot formed at the bottom of the socket can be sleeved with drive heads having different shapes and dimensions, thereby being applicable regarding to various types of screws. However, the socket is only served as a tool for transferring the torque, the socket itself is not provided with a quantified torque mechanism.
When a conventional rotation tool such as a screwdriver or a wrench is used for adjusting the lens of an optical device such as a monitor, the torque value of the rotation tool is determined by the force applied by the user, so during the adjustment process, the lens may be broken due to the overly large torque, thereby causing enormous loss.
For preventing a user from applying the rotation force exceeding the tolerance range of a connection member, e.g. a screw, while using a rotation tool such as a screwdriver or a wrench to rotate the screw which causing the damage of the screw. As such, a screwdriver having a transmission structure installed with a spring and a steel ball is developed for limiting the output torque, when the mentioned screwdriver is in use, if the applied torque is overly large, the steel ball is separated from the spring thereby causing the screwdriver and the drive head to be separated, so an idle rotation state is formed between the screwdriver and the drive head. As such, the screwdriver can be controlled to only output the quantified torque thereby preventing the connection member from being damaged.
The screwdriver utilizing the spring and steel ball for transmission is able to control the torque to be quantified for outputting, however, a point contact state is formed while the spring and the steel ball being loosening from each other, such condition may cause the components more likely to be deformed and damaged, thus the limited output torque value is relatively unstable. In addition, because the transmission structure composed by the spring and the steel ball, the dimension of the screwdriver is not able to be effectively reduced, thus the mentioned screwdriver cannot be used for locking or adjusting a procession instrument.
In view of the shortages of the mentioned rotation tool, the applicant of the present invention has developed a torque socket entitled to the Taiwan Patent No. M414299 (corresponding to the China Patent No. CN201998113U, the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/310,766, the German Patent Application No. 102012005885.3 and the Japan Patent Application No. 2011-007636), in which a resilient core shaft formed on a shaft rod is sleeved in a shaft slot axially formed in a shaft cylinder, the shaft slot is a stepped hole having a dimension slightly smaller than the core shaft, a flange part radially and protrudingly formed at a distal end of the core shaft is buckled with a buckle part correspondingly formed in the shaft slot, and a friction segment capable of packing the core shaft is radially and protrudingly formed in the shaft slot, so the core shaft and the shaft slot are provided with a preset torque value; the other ends of the shaft rod and shaft hole are respectively formed with an insertion tenon used for being combined with a rotation tool and a sleeve slot used for being sleeved with a drive head.
During the screwing process of the torque socket, when the applied torque does not exceed the preset torque value of the socket, the screw can be further screwed in, when the screw has been rotated and positioned, and the applied torque has exceeded the preset torque value, the core shaft idly rotate in the shaft slot, thereby preventing the screw from being overly locked. However, while the torque socket being used for locking the screw, the socket itself does not generate any sound for informing the user the locking state has been reached. Moreover, while the torque socket being used for loosening the screw, if the combined force of the screw and the object to be combined is greater than the preset torque value of the torque socket, the core shaft can only idly rotate in the shaft slot and cannot be used for loosening the screw. As such, how to providing a function of generating a sound while the connection member being properly locked by the torque socket and a non-return function while the connection member being loosened are the issues that the applicant of the present invention desires to solve.